


Vox Severus

by Andante825



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Minor Lily Evans Potter/Severus Snape, Young Severus Snape
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-17
Updated: 2017-07-17
Packaged: 2018-12-03 07:50:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11527821
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Andante825/pseuds/Andante825
Summary: When Severus Snape's voice changes in fourth year, everyone notices.





	Vox Severus

**Author's Note:**

> This fic, which I began a few months ago, is based on the premise that if Severus' voice is as irresistible as canon, fandom, and Alan Rickman attest, everyone would take notice when it dropped. Setting is fourth year to avoid any canon clash, but in my head-canon, this changes everything :) (just not within the scope of this short fic). 
> 
> Still making slow progress on the last few chapters of my (slightly) longer and much more challenging fic, The Polyjuice Fantasy File, during a busy period at work. Hope you enjoy this fic in the meantime, and I appreciate your comments and kudos more than I can say.

During his fourth year at Hogwarts, something changed for Severus Snape.

At first, humiliation: a crackling jump from baritone to falsetto in class, at dinner, in the Slytherin common room. A break in his voice, in the middle of inviting Black to perform anatomically impossible feats upon the Giant Squid. Worst of all, a freakish sort of hiccup-foghorn sound in the middle of Potions … while teaching Lily the most efficient motion for grinding moonstone.

Around the time Deodoro really started working for him, his voice settled down. Except for the occasional crack or break, he sounded … good. He thought. 

Then strange things started happening.

This year's DADA teacher was Guinevere Tiel. The older Slytherin boys spoke so graphically about the fit young Auror that Severus would leave the common room at the sound of her name. If he ever heard anyone speak that way about Lily, he would – but here even his darkest imaginings failed him.

Defence Against the Dark Arts was his favorite class, apart from Potions, because he loved the material and rarely had to speak. His unreliable voice spurred his determination to learn nonverbal casting, and it paid off in DADA (and against the Marauders) even more than he’d dreamt. Lily’s admiring look as he silently Disarmed two opponents in a mock duel was a gift he’d treasure all his life.

Professor Tiel was ending the lesson one day when Lily dropped a quill and bent sideways to pick it up. Watching the graceful extension of her arm, the curve at her waist visible even through robes, Severus missed the revision.

The professor’s back was turned, so instead of raising his hand, Severus cleared his throat. “Professor, could you repeat the assignment, please?”

The woman jumped and looked around wildly. “I’m sorry, who said that?”

Severus stood, a bit uncertain. “I did, ma’am.” For once his voice was behaving itself.

Professor Tiel blushed so deeply that the change of colour was visible from the back row.

“Mr Snape, of course.” She gave him a single, oddly speculative look. “The assignment is chapters twenty through twenty-three, and twelve inches on Fredo the Softhearted’s use of nonlethal hexes in life-threatening duels.”

Ah, yes. He’d been looking forward to that discussion.

“Now, if there are no more questions …” The attractive professor glanced around the room, seeming a bit off-balance, and then said: “Class dismissed.”

Lily met him in the hallway. “What was that all about?”

He shook his head. Potter and Black had gone up the stairs, so he could let his guard down slightly.

“She looked like she’d seen a ghost,” Lily went on. “Or heard a ghost, I suppose. She almost jumped out of her skin.”

“I have no idea,” he murmured. A sixth-year girl passing by gave him a strange look. Rather like Professor Tiel’s, in fact.

Lily patted his bicep affectionately. “See you in Potions?”

He brightened. “If Slughorn’s following the book ..”

“And when does he not?”

“… we’ll brew Pepper-Up today.” He had an idea for a slight variation, a methodical singeing of the pepper skin before peeling, that would lessen the steam’s heat by several degrees …

“Partner me, yeah?” 

“Always,” Severus said, laughing. The most beautiful girl in the year – no, in the school, if not the whole magical world – wanted to sit beside him on a Potions bench. And she was far from dead weight, thank Merlin. Charms was her greatest strength, but Slughorn adored her and she had a good bit of natural talent in his own favourite subject.

“Thank you, Sev.” Those green eyes flashed up at him, and he lost his breath. Then she turned and ran up the stairs, which swung back happily to meet her.

He reached the Slytherin common room without incident. Two girls sat near the fire, revising for Ancient Runes.

“Oi, Snape,” one of them called – Smith, her name was, Valour Smith. “Over here.”

There was no question of refusing. Both Smith and her friend – Emma Davis, he saw, now she’d lifted her head – were seventh-year purebloods.

“How can I be of assistance?”

The girls looked at each other, delighted. “Sounds just like Thaddeus Prince, he does,” said Davis.

“He’s my mother’s cousin,” Severus said. Neither he nor his mother had ever met Thaddeus, but he knew the name.

“He’s smashing,” the girl said. “Daddy took us to see his play in Paris last season.”

“Everyone’s seen ‘The Wandering Witch,’” Smith said, unimpressed. 

“We met him at a private party after,” Davis went on, smugly. “He signed both my –”

“If there’s nothing else, ladies, I really must go,” Severus interrupted.

Their focus swiveled back to him. “Would you read this aloud? It’s for our class.”

Smith handed him the seventh-year textbook, opened to the introductory chapter on wandless warding. He scanned the text and dutifully recited: “The wise witch or wizard will never overlook the subtle. The raw firepower of curses, the noxious, insidious lure of potions and poisons – a runic ward will undercut them all. The powerful practitioner can ward in such a way that any harm is turned upon its source, like the searing of a dragon’s swallowed flame.”

He stopped, hoping that was enough, and glanced up. 

Both girls’ faces were rosy with firelight. Smith waved a hand theatrically before her face.

“Pity he’s only a fourth-year,” she murmured. “Circe’s girdle!”

“What’s it like?” Davis mused. “Silk?”

“Like raw silk,” Smith said dreamily. “The sound of raw silk, ripping. Raw silk sheets.”

“It’s like black velvet,” Davis said, inspired.

“Melted chocolate. Ooh, no, I’ve got it. Like dark chocolate … ganache.”

“Ooh, and now I’m hungry.”

Both girls turned back, a clear predatory gleam in their eyes, but Severus had already fled.

***

He was five minutes late for Potions. Potter and Black sniggered something in their corner, but Slughorn nodded genially and pointed to the board. He knew very well that Severus could brew Pepper-Up with one hand tied behind his back. Possibly both, if someone put his wand between his teeth.

“Are you all right, then?” Lily murmured.

He basked in her concern. “Fine. A strange encounter in my common room. I was waiting for them to leave and lost track of time.”

Her green eyes widened. “Was it—”

“No, no.” He had to laugh, even though he knew very well that she had no sense of humour about his Slytherin acquaintances. “Not at all. Just a couple of girls. Seventh-years.”

Then something changed.

Her eyes, those eyes, narrowed almost imperceptibly. Her back straightened slightly, and her generous mouth pursed.

“I see,” she said, and a thrilling shock seemed to trip down each of his vertebrae. Lily was jealous. Even if it lasted the merest instant, he had caused her to feel a fraction of what he felt every agonizing moment Potter was permitted to breathe in her presence.

“Nothing like that,” he murmured, ducking his head. He’d gained several inches over the summer and was now taller than she, so this took him close to her ear. “They wanted help with Ancient Runes. Some of the reading. But they were acting a bit odd.”

“I see,” she said. “Would you like to do the peppers?”

He lit up, all joy and awkwardness forgotten, and focused on singeing. The greater the number of commonly used potions he could improve upon, the more likely an apothecary or hospital would sign an exclusive contract with him once out of school – perhaps, he dearly hoped, as soon as next year. He would earn Galleons, Galleons he could use to take Lily on proper outings … dates, even, one might call them …

Focused on brewing, he forgot so easily what he looked like (the hair, the skin, the nose – dear Merlin, the nose), and all things seemed possible. He hummed with satisfaction, seeing the steam curl up in the final phase of brewing, concentrating so intently that he missed Lily’s covert glance.

Had he seen it, the potion would have ended up as so much useless swill.

***

Girls began following him everywhere.

Not even his own bed was safe. Female students were permitted entry to the male dorms, and the evening he found a partially clothed fifth-year waiting behind his drawn bedcurtains shook him to the core. Girls did not throw themselves at Severus Snape.

And Lily was noticing. She stuck closer to him than usual in the halls, once even slipping her arm through the crook of his elbow, causing him to fumble his books. She helped him pick them up, and then put her arm right back in his. He hoped desperately that his face would not literally, through an ill-timed resurgence of accidental magic, burst into flames.

Unfortunately, Potter and Black were also noticing. Although he gloried in Potter’s baffled glares, the harassment grew worse – something he wouldn’t have thought possible.

One day, Lily left Defence a few minutes early (to beg an analgesic potion from Madam Pomfrey, he understood – as a boy whose only close friend was female, he knew very well when her cycle began). Professor Tiel had disappeared into a storeroom, and before Severus realized the danger, he’d been hit with a Tripping Jinx.

“Colloterram,” Black said, sticking down both of Severus’ arms. He tried to wriggle backwards out of his robes, clinging grimly to his wand, but Potter saw the danger and cast Petrificus Totalus. Severus felt his nose break as it hit the stone floor, causing his vision to black out for several seconds. 

“What d’you reckon?” Potter asked. “Some kind of love potion? The Imperius Curse?”

“Dark Arts, for sure,” Black growled. “Half the girls in Hogwarts mooning after Snivellus?” He aimed a glancing kick at Severus’ ribs. “Got to be something foul.” 

“I cast Finite Incantatem on Evans, but it didn’t seem to –”

“What is going on – boys, what on earth are you doing? Stand down at once!”

Professor Tiel had her wand out, Severus guessed, because Black and Potter hastily obeyed.

“It’s like this, professor,” Potter began in an earnest, everyone-loves-me voice, “Sniv – Snape here is casting some kind of compulsion hex, or maybe he’s putting some kind of potion –”

“He’s bleeding!” She must have cast a silent Finite, for Severus could move again. He forced himself to stand up. “You attacked him two on one! I will escort Mr Snape to the infirmary, and the two of you will go straight to the Headmaster’s office!”

Black snorted, and Professor Tiel heard him.

She drew herself up, eyes blazing. “Fine,” she said in a low, clipped voice. “Two hundred points from Gryffindor, and two weeks’ detention with Filch – separately. You will alternate evenings for four full weeks. If this is how you behave together, a month apart will do you both some good.”

Potter looked gobsmacked. Black was still putting up a brave front, until Tiel added: “And I’ll be owling your parents personally. Bullies are cowards, gentlemen, and there’s nothing lower or more contemptible. I’ve known Dark wizards who never violated their own standard of personal honour. I’ve never known an honourable coward.

“Now, Mr Snape. Let me know if you start feeling faint.” She put one arm across his back, reaching up slightly to do so. “Gentlemen. I expect to see Mr Black assisting Filch this evening. I will inform the Headmaster myself.”

She began guiding Severus down the hall. Turning his back on Black and Potter took some effort, and even then the skin between his shoulderblades itched. 

Lily was still in the infirmary, lying down with her feet propped up while her potion took effect. The look on her face when Severus walked in (still supported, embarrassingly, by Professor Tiel) was that of a Fury awaiting her vengeance.

“Who did this to you?” she demanded. “No, don’t talk! Your poor face, Sev – Professor, was it Potter and Black? They won’t leave him alone –”

“It was indeed,” she said. “Mr Snape, once your nose has been healed, please tell Madam Pomfrey everything that happened. If you don’t remember, I’ll interrogate Potter and Black.” 

Severus allowed himself a brief yet vivid daydream.

“Those two,” Pomfrey muttered, lining up her wand. “Hold still, dear, you know how this works. Episkey.”

“What set them off?” Lily asked him.

“They tripped me from behind, as I was leaving class,” he said defensively. “I didn’t do anything.”

“Then why –”

“They accused me of poisoning the food,” he said. “Or else using the Imperius Curse, or a love potion, or something like. To get girls … you know, to follow me around.”

Lily laughed scornfully. Professor Tiel smiled.

“Well, why not?” Severus said. “Something’s going on. I’m not doing it, Lily, I swear, but something’s not right.”

“Something’s not right,” Lily repeated. “Just because a silly girl or two has finally noticed you exist?”

“YES!” This came out more forcefully than he’d intended.

“Mr Snape,” Professor Tiel said. “Puberty is an exciting, often stressful time –”

“Oh, do shut up,” Madam Pomfrey interrupted. “Dear, it’s your voice.”

Lily’s eyes widened. Even Professor Tiel looked a bit nervous.

“Have you ever listened to yourself? I’m surprised you’ve not charmed the very birds from the trees. You have a real gift, my dear, like that cousin of yours. The one on the stage,” she added, for Professor Tiel and Lily’s benefit. “You could walk out of Hogwarts and make your fortune in the Muggle world this minute.”

There was a stunned silence.

“Bollocks,” said Severus Snape.

“Sev!” Lily gasped.

Professor Tiel burst out laughing, a surprisingly hearty sound, and after a moment Madam Pomfrey began chuckling, too.

“I assure you it’s the strictest truth,” she said. “If you don’t believe me, record yourself sometime when you’re at home. Or watch yourself in a Pensieve, if you’ve access to one.”

“Magic can find expression in the voice,” Tiel added. “Think of sirens and banshees. Or your favourite actor or singer, if you like.”

“Does it sound any less plausible than you dosing half of Hogwarts’ pumpkin juice with a customized love philtre?” Pomfrey asked, and he was forced to shake his head. 

He winced as he did so, and she immediately checked his pupils. “Enough chatter,” she said, with a trace of lingering fondness. He had never known before that she actually liked him, but it seemed that she did. “I’ll need to keep you for observation. Miss Evans, you’re welcome to stay, but I would recommend going to dinner. You need to keep your strength up, too.”

“I’ll see you later, Sev, if you’re all right,” she told him. One of her slim white hands came up and cupped his cheek, so gently he almost couldn’t feel it. “I’m sorry this happened, and I’m so glad Professor Tiel caught them.”

“If they’d been paying attention,” the professor said, “they would have known that I’d just left for a moment to reassure myself that Miss McKinnon had fastened the lid on the Kappa’s tank. I’ll walk to the Great Hall with you, Evans.”

They left together, abandoning Severus to his whirling thoughts. As well as a very bad headache.

He did have a mild concussion, as it turned out, and Pomfrey kept him overnight. He enjoyed the quiet and the isolation. With any luck, Black and Potter would be subdued enough, perhaps chastised by their Housemates at the obvious drop in points, that he would be granted a few days’ peace once he left the infirmary.

***

“I have a surprise for you, Sev.”

He ignored the sudden jump in his heartrate and met Lily’s eyes. She looked excited, a bit nervous, and – something he couldn’t quite figure.

“Is it my Christmas gift?”

“Is it Christmas yet?”

“Not quite,” he allowed, smiling slightly. “But that’s never stopped you before.”

“I’m practicing patience,” she said. “This is more of a – you might not even like it.”

“I’ll like anything you give me.” His voice was low and fervent, and she blushed.

Two weeks had passed since Pomfrey’s outburst regarding his sudden appeal to the female population of Hogwarts. He’d spent much of that time observing, drawing his own conclusions, and based on responses such as pupil dilation, blushing, and rushing off to giggle with other girls, he had to conclude that she was correct. He found it impossible, still, to believe that a single feature could drown out his many disadvantages – at least in the eyes of adolescent girls.

“I’ve already tested it on myself,” she said. “With Mary, I mean. It takes two people. I combined a switching charm with an altered Sonorous – that was a tricky bit of Arithmancy, I don’t mind telling you – and … well, I’ll just tell you. I’ve figured out how to borrow someone else’s voice.”

He looked around swiftly. No one appeared to be in earshot, but he cast his own experimental anti-eavesdropping charm just in case.

“Lily,” he said, hiding any sign of panic. “If you’ve solved the problem of Polyjuice voice-matching …”

She shook her head. “Both participants have to cast the charm,” she said. “I just thought, if you wanted to hear what you sound like … it really is different, hearing your voice coming from someone else.” 

He imagined Lily tearing a strip off Potter in his own voice. His body didn’t seem to know whether to find it sexy or deeply disturbing.

“It was just a thought,” Lily said.

She invented a new spell for you, you ungrateful clod! “I’d love to try it.”

Her eyes lit up, and she gave him a dazzling smile. “I think it will be tremendously funny.”

“Let’s find somewhere private, then,” he said, and she blushed again.

They ended up in an abandoned classroom on the fourth floor. “We have to hold hands for this part,” Lily said. 

Severus knew he was blushing. “All right then,” he said, brilliantly.

Her hand was warm in his. “Ready?” she asked, and he nodded. “Vox Excambio!”

His larynx seemed to constrict, a wholly unpleasant sensation. He let go of her hand to feel his Adam’s apple. It fluttered like the wings of a Snitch beneath his fingers.

“Did it work?” he asked, and was equal parts delighted and disturbed to hear Lily’s voice – a sweet contralto, but very much a female voice – emanating from his own mouth.

Lily grinned. She held up one finger, flung her head back like an orator or a Shakespearean grand-stander, and declaimed: “I … love … fairy cakes!”

Severus laughed, his throat tickling deliciously. “My name is Lily Evans, and I’m a flobberworm Animagus,” he announced.

“My name is Severus Snape, and I don’t hate babies!”

His voice on her lips was one of the most confusing pleasures he’d ever experienced. “I’m the most brilliant girl at Hogwarts,” he tried, and threw in a trilling laugh.

Lily laughed, too, but it came out as a bizarre sort of baritone giggle.

“I’m the sexiest Slytherin,” she said, reaching for a sultry lower register. “One glance from my smouldering obsidian eyes, and you too will fall under my spell …”

She was joking, he knew she was joking, but she’d never mentioned his eyes before.

“Cokeworth would be colourless without me,” he said. “I carry sunshine everywhere I go.”

“Sev,” she said. “That’s really lovely.”

She was right – his voice did sound different, coming from someone else. Warmer, somehow, and with greater depth.

“I’m the best friend any girl could wish for,” she said. “And my voice really is lovely. I can feel it all the way down here.” She placed a hand somewhere beneath her robes. “It’s like a tiger purring. Can you feel?”

Before Severus had really grasped what was happening, she’d grabbed his hand and pressed it just beneath her solar plexus, over her shirt. “I can practically feel it in my toes,” she said, and he could see how it might be so. As she said, the vibration felt almost like purring. 

When he tried to take his hand back, she stepped closer. His fingers slid around the curve of her waist.

“Finite Incantatem,” she whispered.

“Lily, what are you –”

“Severus – please, shut up,” Lily said, and she kissed him.


End file.
